John MacArthur’s Unanswerable Questions?

John MacArthur’s Unanswerable Questions?

This is probably the most profound and “spiritual” (and most hilarious) thing one of the most distinguished and high-profile preachers of our day has said this century. (Read here.)

John MacArthur said the following when a little kid asked him one of the most important questions there is to be asked, and for that matter, ought to be asked by every sound thinking adult who knows how to use his brains effectively.

Question:[A very young Child]: I listened to your sermon last Sunday, and I was wondering, why didn’t God choose everybody to be saved? [Tom’s comment: “Kids seem to listen more intently to sermons than adults.”)

Why didn’t God choose everyone to be saved? You know something, honey? I don’t know. I don’t know. But, I’ll give you a basic answer, Ok? And the basic answer–and I hope you can understand this–the basic answer is: because He got more glory for his own name by doing it the way He did it. God does what He does for His glory. And somehow, in some way, God is glorified in what He did, and that’s why He did it.

Let me tell you something else: does God ever make a mistake? Is God ever wrong? Is God loving? He is. So, whatever He does fits into his character somehow. And if it’s hard for us to understand, that’s not God’s problem; whose problem is that? That’s our problem, isn’t it? Because we just don’t have the ability to understand that.

So there are some questions you just can’t answer–that’s one of them. Ok? Thank you, honey.

Okey Dokey! Now, that’s what I call a dumb and a stupid answer. First he tells us, “adults don’t ask them [those kind of questions] because they’ve learned there’s no answer” and then he ventures to answer the little kid.

If there are no final answers to the little girl’s question, then the answer John MacArthur gave her cannot be a believable answer but instead a believable lie. How can you say there are no answers and then provide an answer? That’s just plain silly. It is downright dishonesty. He even tells her “and I hope you can understand this.”

What??? He hopes a little girl can understand what adults do not understand because they’ve learned that they CANNOT POSSIBLY understand or know how to answer them, and because he himself doesn’t know what the answers are? Duh!!! Now that’s what I call TOTAL DEPRAVITY (TOTAL INABILITY).

But wait, the hilarious part is still to come. He says: “You know something honey? I don’t know.” And then he repeats: “I don’t know.” This is what I call DOUBLE JEOPARDY.” And here’s the punch line. He tells her: “But I’ll give you a basic answer.”

One of the meanings of “basic” given by any good dictionary is that of being the “base” or “fundamental” foundation of something bigger or larger. He was actually telling the little girl: “I don’t know, I don’t know. But I’ll give you a fundamental basis on which you can build your own conjectures.”

And then he bursts out with pride and self-confident conviction that he knows the answer (having first told us that adults do not know the answers) by telling her: “because He got more glory for His own name by doing it the way He did it. God does what He does for His glory.”

If I’d been that little girl I would have said to him: “Sir, you say that you don’t know the answers because you’re a grown man. But, how come you know that the damnation of billions of people to hell, even before the foundation of the earth, just because God did not elect them unto salvation, pleases Him and gives Him more glory?

Doesn’t the Lord of glory say that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked and that it is his will that everyone should be saved? He’s been an adult since time immemorial and HE knows all the answers, doesn’t He?”

John MacArthur: Prince of Preachers?

This is the kind of garbage our modern-day Princes of Preachers teach our children in Sunday schools and in seminaries and their parents happily pay for their garbage. What did Jesus Christ say?

“And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” (Mark 9:42)

Why must he be cast into the sea? Well, I don’t know, I don’t know. But what I do know is that it gives God more glory. NO! The correct answer is: Because the depths of the sea is a metaphor of how completely God casts a repentant sinner’s sins away from Him. In other words he must be cast into the sea where God casts all the sins. (Micah 7:19)

What’s the moral of the story? Beware what you tell your little kids. It may just be the ultimate thing that decides where God is going to cast you.

Well, at least there’s one good thing we can say about John MacArthur’s non-answerable answer. He’s a real gentleman. He ends off by saying: “Thank you, honey.” First he sells her a bunch of garbage and then he thanks HER? Now that’s what I call real gentlemanly deception.

One last thought. If you adults do not know how to answer your little kids’ questions, just tell them. ‘I don’t know, I don’t know honey, but what I do know is that it gives God more glory. Hallelujah! AMEN!!!’ Or you may do even better than that. Listen to your kids when you do not know the answers.

And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? (Matthew 21:16)

Sorry, but bear with me when I present you with one more last thought. John MacArthur made a very important statement when he told the little girl:

Let me tell you something else: does God ever make a mistake? Is God ever wrong? Is God loving? He is. So, whatever He does fits into His character somehow. And if it’s hard for us to understand, that’s not God’s problem; whose problem is that? That’s our problem, isn’t it? Because we just don’t have the ability to understand that.

One of the strangest things about Calvinism (and there are many enigmatic things about it) is that they can tell you exactly in minor detail everything about God’s sovereignty. Please don’t get me wrong. God is absolutely sovereign and He may and also often does exactly as He pleases.

However, when his love crosses the mind, as it had the little girl’s, they don’t have a clue what it means. They immediately plead “MYSTERY” when God’s love and him being the essence of love is brought to the fore. It is glaringly evident that the little girl who must have been told that God IS love and that it is his will that no one should perish but that all should have eternal life, could not and probably would not allow her to be convinced that this wonderful God who IS love would only choose some to an eternal destiny in heaven with Him.

But let us first turn our attention to God’s sovereignty. As I said, God is absolutely sovereign and He always does as He pleases. Nevertheless, are there any examples in Scripture where He allowed man, who is but dust and ashes, to sway his sovereign decisions? Yep, there are several and they all have something in common.

They all pertain to the salvation of man. When God wanted to wipe out the entire nation of Israel due of their abominable idolatry in the Sinai desert, He allowed Moses to plead in their behalf. Listen to this:

They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. (Exodus 32:8-14).

Another good example is Nineveh. God decided to destroy the entire city and commanded Jonah to preach to them fire and brimstone and the destruction of them all unless they repented. If God had chosen to save only the elect in the city, He would never have made the sovereign decision to destroy the entire city. Surely, He would have said to Himself: “There are a number of the elect in the city whom I have chosen unto salvation before the foundation of the world.

I can therefore only destroy the non-elect whom I have chosen not to love.” Calvinists would probably say: “No! the entire city’s inhabitants were the elect. Had that been the case, why did God sovereignly decide to destroy the elect when they were in the line for eternal bliss in heaven at any rate? That’s ridiculous.

Those people were all lost and on their way to an eternal hell and desperately needed to hear, understand and respond in faith to the Gospel so that they may be saved. And praise be to God, they all did exactly just that

As I’ve already said. Calvinists know everything about God’s sovereignty but very little if anything about His AWESOME love.

John MacArthur should rather have answered the little girl as he had done others so many times in the past.

“The best answer to this question is: ‘Honey, I feel your pain.’ That is the best answer to that question. I’m not here to give you an answer but I will tell you this (Here we go again. He knows exactly how to answer the unanswerable questions). I do not believe that Jesus died for nobody.

I believe He died for somebody and I believe He died specifically for those who would believe in Him and those who believe in Him are those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit based upon the eternal sovereign electing purpose of God.

I believe the atonement was an actual one, not a potential one. I don’t believe it was a general one; it was a specific one. It was a real death for sin. The issue here is the nature of the atonement. Forget the dilemma. You are going to have the dilemma no matter what you do.

The dilemma is, why didn’t He send everyone to heaven? The dilemma is why is there a hell and why are people going there? That is a legitimately difficult question to ask and the only answer I can give you is that if God purposed to do that, Romans 9, who is there to question his purpose?

If He gets glory from judgment the way He gets glory from salvation who are we to question that? The other issue is nobody goes to hell for any other reason than that they are guilty of sin and unbelief ; now this I don’t know but there are a lot of things I don’t know. I said it so many times. I don’t even know how my spiritual life works.”

John MacArthur should rather remain silent.

If MacArthur doesn’t know how his spiritual life works, especially when it pertains to questions regarding salvation and sanctification, isn’t it better that he rather kept his mouth shut tight, so tight that it wouldn’t be possible for him to open it again? I’ll tell why I say so. “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36). If you don’t know, shut up because the words you utter whilst you should rather have kept quiet may judge you in the Day of Judgment.

Besides the point that MacArthur admits that he does not know the answers and yet always proceeds to give answers, he often falls flat on his face over his own answers. Consider for instance the following:

I believe the atonement was an actual one, not a potential one. I don’t believe it was a general one; it was a specific one. It was a real death for sin.

Indeed, Mr MacArthur, it was an actual atonement for SIN. Okey dokey, now this poses a real problem for Mr MacArthur. If Jesus’ death on the cross was an actual one for sin, as he himself admitted, then He must have died for everyone and not only for the elect. simply because all have sinned (Romans 3:23), unless, of course, only the elect have sinned which is preposterous to even contemplate.

If Jesus’ atonement on the cross was an actual one for sin then every single sinner may claim that Jesus died for him or her specifically and therefore has an equal opportunity with every other sinner to be saved by merely putting their trust in Jesus Christ and by appropriating by faith his death on the cross for their sins.

The God of the Bible is not a God of confusion. Satan is the god of confusion and I’m convinced that it is he who makes men who ought to know everything pertaining to salvation and sanctification to say “I don’t know.” Was God lying when He said:

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, . . . (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Are the doctrines of salvation and sanctification secret things or have they been revealed to us so that we may fully understand it? Jesus said:

Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. (John 18:20).

Was Jesus lying when He said:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

Having listened to John MacArthur’s plea that he does not know the answers with regard to questions relating to salvation and sanctification, I can only repeat what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

“Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? (John 3:10)

John MacArthur’s unanswerable question has now been answered.

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Discerning the World is an internet Discernment ministry based in Johannesburg South Africa that was founded in 2008. Tom Lessing originally founded the website "Waak en Bid/Watch and Pray". Tom Lessing joined Discerning the World in May 2013 and all his articles were moved across to DTW.

15 Responses

Sometimes Calvinists, by their subtle reasoning, can catch us off guard. They’ve done it to me in the past. But, praise God, He always has one of his people come along and deal with it succinctly, logically and–best of all–scripturally. From the mouths of babes, indeed! But it is a scary thing how Calvinism is spreading.
Calvinists do not give up. The above reply shows that real Christians aren’t giving up either when it comes to contending for the faith once delivered. Thanks again for these contributions, Thomas.

Dr. John Macarthur: Troubling facts about John Macarthur include the following: his church’s principal source of funding, The Believers Foundation, is funded and directed by Lorena Jaeb, who was and may still be a Governor of the Council for National Policy, which is considered to be a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) front org. John Macarthur’s operations, including The Master’s College, receive approximately $3,000,000 annually from The Believers Foundation. Macarthur is promoted by Salem Communications which is directed by men who are members of the Council for National Policy. Macarthur has close ties with Al Mohler, who takes orders from Richard Land, the President of the ERLC of the SBC and a CFR member.

John MacArthur & Rick Warren both belong to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) This agency is a “One World Government, Monetary, and Religion” arm of the USA government.
Christians, especially Southern Baptist Christians need to wake up.

MacArthur and Warren are “Mega Wolves” the worst kind. While they teach/preach with a smile on their faces they are ravenous wolves packaged in Sheep’s Designer Clothing.

Dr. John Macarthur: Troubling facts about John Macarthur include the following: his church’s principal source of funding, The Believers Foundation, is funded and directed by Lorena Jaeb, who was and may still be a Governor of the Council for National Policy, which is considered to be a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) front org. John Macarthur’s operations, including The Master’s College, receive approximately $3,000,000 annually from The Believers Foundation. Macarthur is promoted by Salem Communications which is directed by men who are members of the Council for National Policy. Macarthur has close ties with Al Mohler, who takes orders from Richard Land, the President of the ERLC of the SBC and a CFR member.

John MacArthur & Rick Warren both belong to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) This agency is a “One World Government, Monetary, and Religion” arm of the USA government.
Christians, especially Southern Baptist Christians need to wake up.

MacArthur and Warren are “Mega Wolves” the worst kind. While they teach/preach with a smile on their faces they are ravenous wolves packaged in Sheep’s Designer Clothing.

[EDITED by DTW – MacArthur could very well have removed himself from the CFR that is why he is not listed anymore – this is a 2013 list – names have been removed. There is no ways to tell anymore unless you can go back in time. I don’t believe Bob lied. Richard Land is still on the list.]

Thank you for your kinds words…how very Christian they are. I received this information from the web site. above. If Johnny is not a member of the CFR he is still a Calvinistic heretic because of his statements concerning the precious blood of Christ. He also can’t tell, even an approximate date when he accepted Jesus as his Savior.

Salvation Statement of John MacArthur

PHIL: So you’re saying . . . are you saying it would be difficult for you to put your finger on when your conversion took place?

JOHN: Yeah. I’ve never been able to do that. And it doesn’t bother me. I think I’m one of those kids . . . I was one of those kids that never rebelled and always believed. And so when God did His saving work in my heart, it was not discernable to me. I went away to high school and for all I knew, I loved Christ, I was part of the ministry of the church. I went away to college and I wanted to serve the Lord and honor the Lord. I was certainly immature. But at some point along the line, I really do believe there was a transformation in my heart, but I think it may have been to some degree imperceptible to me because I didn’t ever have a rebellious time, I didn’t ever revolt against, you know, the gospel or not believe. And I guess that’s . . . in some ways that’s a grace act on God’s part. So that all that wonderful training found some level of fertile soil in my heart and none of it was wasted.

That is a sad testimony of any one claiming to be saved. Coming from the man himself is makes it worse.

I still believe him to be a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” His testimony is quite like John Calvin. There was no words of Jesus Christ, no words of repentance. Sad, very sad.

Harassment, false accusations and persecution are usually tactics Calvinists and other false teachers and pastors use to discredit those who expose their heresies. The Mosaïek Church in Fairland, Johannesburg, South Africa (a contemplative cesspool of mystical false doctrines) has banned me from their church premises, all their conferences and other meetings. Two staunch Calvinists (a male and a female) tried to have my blog (Watch and Pray/Waak en Bid) taken down by WordPress. After a long battle and many e-mails I convinced WordPress that their attempt was a malicious attack on me and they decided to allow me to continue. I then decided of my own accord to delete my blog and to join this site as a regular contributor.

Indeed, Satan is, as Paul wrote, a past master at transforming himself into an angel of light and his disciples are equally adept in transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness, and leading millions astray and into the deepest pits of hell.

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 1:9-11)

I was saved about four years ago when I realized what scripture had to say about how truly sinful I am And I was convinced that The gospel of Jesus, the Christ was true and personal. Being raised in word of faith movement as a child; watching my step dad walk around the house praying in tongues one day and be a sociopathic abusive person to his family the next. Needless to say I was introduced to Calvinism as an adult; frustrated with the liberal church I was attending, and having the wof experience growing up, I was hooked. I became a zealot for the “doctrines of grace”. That is until someone asked me, given the Calvinist view of predestination and election, was I in danger of hell before I believed the gospel? I confronted my pastor with the question and got the classic mystery cop out. After some digging it occurred to me that corporate election or the traditionalist Baptist view of scripture left no “mystery ” unanswered. I also discovered that the Calvinist view of scripture is just a synthesis of Platonism and Gnosticism applied to scripture, just as wof is Christian Science and Gnosticism. There is a one world religion scheme taking place and it’s subtle and seductive. I think the common thread is Gnosticism. If you take a close look at Catholic, Jehovah witnesses, Muslims, Calvinism… it all has the same common thread of gnostic doctrine….

It’s interesting how Calvinist teachers will tout Calvinism is “historical Christianity”. They will selectively quote Calvinist preachers all the way back to Calvin and Luther but from there they jump to the apostle Paul, leaving a thousand or more years of church history untouched. Both Calvin and Luther give full credit to Augustine for their doctrinal beliefs. The reason most contemporary Calvinist preachers only give Augustine an honorary mention at best is because if anyone really looks into his life and work ( the root of Calvinist doctrine) they will discover that the ideology on which Calvinism rests is not on scripture but on a synthesis of Greek philosophy and Gnosticism. Why the debaters against Calvinism don’t use this information is beyond me…